District preparing legal action against old fire department

June 28--The taxing district that controls the budgets of Key Largo's fire and ambulance services is prepared to launch a legal attack on the fire company that lost its contract last year over land that company owns and the district wants.

The land at mile marker 99 contains the firehouse owned by the taxing district and used by the Key Largo Volunteer Fire Department. The former company, the Key Largo Volunteer Fire Rescue Department, wants almost $700 a month in rent from the taxing district for the land and a second building there.

But the five-member Key Largo Fire Rescue and Emergency Medical Services District board voted unanimously Monday to seek a court order making the former department hand over the land and building.

"We believe we have viable options that don't involve eminent domain," said Theron Simmons, the district's legal counsel.

Specifically, Simmons said the land the former department owns is no longer being used for the purpose it was originally given to the nonprofit company by the county -- to operate a firefighting base.

"The new fire department uses the same fire station, the same fire trucks and the same firefighters, except two," said Commissioner Bob Thomas. "Now [the former department] is trying to charge us with use of the land."

The old department, led by longtime Chief Sergio Garcia, still exists as a nonprofit corporation. It was replaced last year by the Key Largo Volunteer Fire Department, which is headed by leadership from the Key Largo Ambulance Corps.

Garcia's department lost its contract to provide fire service to Key Largo after commissioners voted 3-2 to cancel it without cause in March 2013. Leading up to the vote, Thomas and commissioners Marilyn Beyer and George Mirabella accused Garcia of operating his department with little consideration to the district or its commissioners.

Garcia, in turn, accused the three commissioners of trying to micromanage his department, despite only Mirabella having firefighting experience.

When Garcia's department was under contract, it charged the district $1 a month for use of the land it owns.

The old department came up with the nearly $700 rate after adding the $1 monthly rent with liability insurance and the electric bill. The old department estimates those costs to be about $520 and $167 respectively.

Frank Conklin, president of the former department, said his outfit has been paying insurance and utilities on the property and the building it owns since last year without being reimbursed by the district.

Conklin, who is running against Mirabella for his Seat 4 on the district's board, also denies the former department is no longer a firefighting operation.

Regardless, Thomas said Conklin and Garcia are "holding the district and taxpayers hostage" by continuing to lay claim to the land and building.

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